Ex-daily Press Sports Editor Joins Lower Va. Hall

February 19, 1989|By TONY ANTHONY Metro Sports Coordinator

HAMPTON — Charles S. Karmosky, who was the sports editor of The Daily Press for 35 years, will be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame of the Lower Virginia Peninsula at an induction banquet February 27 at the Hampton Coliseum.

Karmosky will join Herbie Morewitz and Lew Worsham in the Hall along with one other inductee to be announced at a later date.

Karmosky started as a "one-man" sports department at the Daily Press after spending a couple of years at Langley Air Force Base in special services and three years with the Hampton Bureau of The Daily Press.

"Charlie always enjoyed being around sports people," said his wife, Betty, whose husband died in August of 1988. "And he loved all kinds of sports. But his real love was baseball, even as a kid back home in Pennsylvania."

His love for baseball was evident over the years and perhaps one of the reasons why he founded (and was president) of the Tri-County Baseball League on the Peninsula, a semi-pro baseball league.

The league began in the late 1940s and lasted until the early 1950s. Eight to 10 teams comprised the league during that span, according to Paul Yewcic, the sports director at Fort Eustis who also played with Toano in the league.

Some of the teams in the league included the Newport News Elks, Toano, Seaford, Hampton, Copeland Park, Gloucester, Dandy, Poquoson and a C&O team, according to Yewcic.

"It was one of the best organized league's around," said Yewcic. "We had some great crowds (500 to 700) coming to the games every day."

Karmosky covered the entire spectrum of amateur and professional sports as editor.

As the years went by Karmosky turned the his sports pages into one of the top sections in the Old Dominion, concentrating mainly on local coverage.

His column Sportscope filled the sports pages of The Daily Press at least five times a week.

He also founded the Peninsula Sports Club and was its "Man of the Year" in 1958. He was also a member of the Honors Court (chairman) of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and a member of the Hall of Fame Committee of the Lower Virginia Peninsula.

Tickets for the Hall of Fame induction banquet Feb. 27 at the Hampton Coliseum are available at the Coliseum, Hampton Visitor Center or the Hampton Golf and Tennis Center. Tickets are $15 per person. Dinner begins at 7 p.m.